A/N: Thank you again for all of the reviews! I'm so relieved that the emails seem to be working again. I hope you all enjoy the new chapter! I know a lot of you are eager to see more Mer/Der moments, and I promise, there will be plenty in the coming chapters. Right now, though, it's time for Addison's wedding!
"It's about time you got here," Addison exclaimed the next evening as she hugged Callie and Meredith. "I was expecting you hours ago. I thought maybe you were lost in the desert or something."
"Nah," Callie laughed. "We just had to make a few more stops than expected, that's all."
"Well, come on in," Addison said. "Everyone's hanging out on the deck right now. I'll have Kevin come out and take your bags next door to Sam's."
"George is coming Saturday morning, right?" Addison asked as she and Callie headed out toward the deck while Meredith took a slight detour to use the bathroom.
"His flight gets in around eight," Callie confirmed. "He says he's sorry he couldn't be here sooner, but he couldn't get any more than two days off."
"Hey, I remember what it's like to be a second year," Addison said. "I'm just glad he'll be here for the ceremony. Oh, I hope you don't mind not staying here…Kevin and I just thought it would be a little too much to have people here and host the reception at the same time."
"Don't worry about it," Callie assured her. "Sam's just next door, right? We'll be fine."
"I had him give Meredith the guest room and you and George will have the sofa bed in his living room…I figured as much as Meredith insists she's fine, the real bed would be easier on her body."
"She's not fine," Callie said. "She likes to think she is, but she's not. We had to stop every hour during the drive so that she could move around, because if we didn't, her leg would freeze up. She wants to return to work, but if she can't sit a car for more than an hour without freezing up, how's she going to stand in an OR for hours on end? And do you know why we drove down here?"
"I think Meredith said something about wanting to see the coastline," Addison said.
"She can't fly," Callie said. "She went to pick her sister and brother-in-law up at the airport in June and had a panic attacking just walking through the doors to baggage claim."
"My God," Addison whispered. "I had no idea."
"She doesn't talk about it," Callie said. "I think she's embarrassed. I only know because when Meredith first asked me to drive her down, I wasn't going to do it. Molly called and told me the real reason she wanted to drive. She's getting better, but she's definitely still got a lot of work ahead of her."
"I've got fifty bucks on 'not a chance in hell,'" Alex said as he pulled out his wallet and handed Debbie a crisp fifty dollar bill.
"Anyone else care to wager?" Debbie asked, holding up the envelope containing the cash so far. "The pot's looking fairly decent already."
"I'll take that bet," Izzie said. "My fifty bucks says Alex is wrong, and they were telling the truth."
"No way," Mark said. "I hate to say this…Lord knows, I really hate to say this…but I agree with Karev on this one. Addie would never do something like that. My money's on Grey and Torres pulling our legs."
"What are we betting on?" Derek asked as he approached the group. "Anything worth getting in on?"
"It's just a small wager on Dr. Montgomery's wedding," Debbie said.
"You're kidding me, right?" Derek asked, looking over at Mark. "You're betting on Addie's wedding? At least tell me you're not betting on the outcome."
"Of course not," Mark insisted. "Come on, Derek, you know that I've got more class than that, thank you very much. We're just betting on the reception."
"What's so exciting about that?" Derek asked in confusion.
"Well, you know Dr. Montgomery better than most people," Alex said. "Meredith and Callie told us that she's planning on having a barbeque on her back deck as her reception. The bet's on whether or not they're telling the truth."
"No way," Derek said. "Addison definitely would never go for something like that. When we got married, we had three hundred guests at the Waldorf-Astoria for our reception. You don't go from caviar and champagne to ribs and steaks. I'll put my fifty on no barbeque."
"Okay, what the hell is a bachelorette brunch?" Meredith asked as she and Callie followed Addison into an upscale downtown restaurant the next morning.
"It's my version of a bachelorette party," Addison explained. "This is my way of making sure no one tries to throw me a party tonight."
"What's wrong with a bachelorette party?" Meredith asked. "Those toilet paper dress games are pretty funny."
"I'm 39 years old, I've been married before, I don't need to go out and drunk out off my ass just because I'm getting married tomorrow," Addison said as they approached the table.
"Not that I didn't suggest it," a woman piped up from the other side of the table. "Because it sure was a lot of fun the first time around."
Addison laughed as she walked over and hugged the woman. "Everyone, these are my friends from Seattle, Meredith Grey and Callie Torres-O'Malley."
Meredith and Callie smiled and nodded as they slipped into their seats.
"Callie, Mer, this is Naomi Bennett, my maid of honor," Addison said, motioning to the woman who had spoken earlier.
"For the second time," Naomi laughed. "And there had better not be a third, because after tomorrow, I do not intend to ever wear another pink dress so long as I live."
"Very funny," Addison said, turning to introduce the rest of the group. "Guys, this is Violet Turner, Violet works with Naomi and I at the clinic."
"I'm the shrink," Violet said as she shook their hands.
Meredith and Callie smiled politely as Addison introduced her soon-to-be mother-in-law and a few other friends before everyone sat down to enjoy their food.
"So Meredith," Naomi said a few minutes later. "Are you the friend who had Addison practically living over at St. Ambrose last January?"
"That would be me," Meredith confirmed. "Thanks for sharing her."
"So what exactly happened?" Violet asked. "Were you really in a plane crash?"
"What?" Violet asked in surprise as Naomi elbowed her in the ribs and Addison shot her a disapproving glare. "I'm just curious!"
"It's alright," Meredith assured them. "Yes, I was in a plane crash, but I'm fine now."
"So are you back at work yet?" Naomi asked. "I imagine it must have been hard, losing those hours in the middle of your residency."
"Actually, I'm still on leave," Meredith said. "Because somebody," she stressed with a glance in Callie's direction, "won't clear me to return."
"When you're ready, you'll be cleared, but not before," Callie replied. "Besides, it's not like it's just me. Even your physical therapists agree that you aren't ready. I'm pretty sure you're the only one who thinks that you're ready to work again."
"Regardless, as long as I can start back by the end of January, I should be fine," Meredith said. "The chief of surgery says if I'm back by then, I can just pick up where I left off and finish out my second year, so that I'll just be one year behind the rest of my original intern class."
"So you mean to tell me that you've been off work for seven months?" Naomi asked. "How have you not gone insane? I mean, what do you do with yourself all day?"
Meredith shrugged. "I keep busy enough, I guess. The first few months after the accident were pretty much filled with doctors' appointments and physical therapy all week long, but things have calmed down quite a bit. I usually spend three or four days every week staying with my sister, helping her with her daughter. Her husband is in the middle of his third deployment in Iraq, so I think she likes the company."
"What do you do the other half of the week?" Addison asked. "Somehow I can't see you just sitting around."
"Oh, you know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that," Meredith said. "I still have physical therapy three days a week, weekly appointments with my doctors, plus therapy twice a week. And I spend a lot of time hanging out at the hospital watching surgeries. Just because I can't cut doesn't mean I can't follow my friends around and try to diagnose their patients for them before they get annoyed and kick me out. And I've found lots of projects around the house to keep me busy, too. I actually just finished redoing the basement."
"Yeah, that one was interesting," Callie laughed. "George and I came by a few months ago and the whole house was in shambles. I was afraid it was going to fall down around me."
"Hey, it is not my fault you stopped by on a construction day without calling," Meredith said.
"Construction?" Addison asked. "Good Lord, Meredith, what are you doing to your house?"
"Callie's exaggerating, it wasn't that bad," Meredith insisted. "I had one wall on the first floor moved to make the study bigger so that Lexie could use it as a bedroom. Then, I figured since I already had the construction guys in the house, I might as well make good use of them. The basement's always been unfinished, so I had them finish it and put a few rooms in down there, because the space was huge. So I had a guest bedroom and full bathroom put in, since my house seems to still attract people like a magnet, so they might as well have someplace to sleep. And then the rest of the space is the new TV room."
"Which even I have to admit is a pretty kick-ass room," Callie said.
"It's nothing fancy," Meredith explained. "Just a couple of couches, a small bar, a plasma TV and shelves full of my mother's surgery tapes."
The next day went by in a whirl for everyone involved. Addison had opted for a surprisingly low-key wedding, but that didn't mean there weren't dozens of last-minute things to keep everyone running around until the very last second.
Finally, with the sun setting over the ocean behind them, Addison and Kevin exchanged vows and were married on the beach near the house they now shared. After the simple ceremony, the thirty or so guests retreated to the comfort of Addison's large deck for a barbeque reception.
"So, how does it feel to married?" Meredith asked as Addison walked up beside her as she leaned against the edge of the deck and stared out at the ocean.
"Amazing," Addison smiled. "And, somehow different than I expected."
"What were you expecting?" Meredith asked, turning to face her friend.
"Well, I thought I knew what I'd feel right now," Addison said. "You know, because I've been married before. But this feels so different than right after I married Derek."
"Different how?" Meredith asked.
"I'm not sure I can put my finger on it, exactly," Addison said. "After I married Derek, I felt exhausted from everything that had been leading up to that day. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to be married, but I was just so relieved that it was all over. But today, today just feels so natural…I feel exhilarated, not exhausted. It's amazing the difference."
"You know, no one back in Seattle believed me when I told them you were having a barbeque on your back deck as a reception," Meredith said.
"Hey, it's good food," Addison said. "And really, when you're marrying a man whose parents own one of the most popular restaurants in Los Angeles, how can you refuse their offer to cater the reception?"
"I guess you can't," Meredith said.
"It's not my fault if that restaurant happens to be a barbeque restaurant," Addison laughed.
"I'm just glad you changed out of your dress," Meredith said. "I had these horrible visions of sauce going straight down the front of that white dress."
"I had those same nightmares," Addison said. "That's why I got this one too."
"Hey, not to interrupt or anything," George said as he walked up to the two women. "But Meredith, did you know that those people over there have been glaring at you most of the evening?"
"I noticed," Meredith said. "But I don't know them, so I'm choosing to ignore them."
Addison groaned as she followed George and Meredith's gaze. "Damn," she muttered. "I'm sorry, Mer, those are my parents."
"Ah, that makes sense now," Meredith laughed. "I guess someone told them I'm the slutty intern who stole their first son-in-law away from you?"
"Probably. I'll talk to them, but don't worry, they weren't ever horribly fond of Derek, so I don't know what their problem is," Addison assured her.
"I'll bet they liked him more than they like the idea of their little girl having a barbeque on the beach as a wedding reception," Meredith commented.
"You know, I stopped caring about what my parents thought when I moved to Seattle," Addison said. "For my first wedding, I did everything my mother suggested, from the flowers to the guest list to the cake. This time, I didn't even tell her I was planning a wedding, I just sent off an invitation."
"I think my mother would have beheaded me if I did that," George said.
"George, you did do that," Meredith reminded her. "Except you didn't even send an invitation, you just left a message on her answering machine telling her you got married in Vegas."
"Good point," George laughed. "I don't think she forgave me until Callie and I renewed our vows and let her plan the ceremony. And she wasn't half as bad as Callie's mother, who wouldn't even speak to us until we let her plan the reception. That's really why we did the vow renewal, so that our mothers would speak to us again."
"What about you, Meredith?" Addison asked. "Is there a big fancy wedding in your future?"
"Nah," Meredith said. "I think I'd be too nervous with hundreds of people there. I'll probably just want family and close friends. Although, with the size of Derek's family, that could still put the guest list into the hundreds."
Addison laughed. "I take it things are going well between you two, then?"
"Yeah, I guess so," Meredith said. "We're sort of dating again. It hasn't been that long, though. Actually, only about a week. So nothing's official yet. But I think we're going to make it work this time. We're different people than we were before. He knows what he wants, I'm starting to figure out what I want. It's nice. It's just weird you know, having a relationship where we actually have to make plans to see each other. I'm not used to that."
"Well, it's not like you don't spend almost as much time at the hospital as the rest of us," George said. "She's not working right now, but you'd never know by the way she follows us around and tries to steal our cases."
"I'm not stealing cases," Meredith insisted. "I'm just trying to help. You know, speeding the diagnostic process along, things like that."
"The interns are terrified of her," George laughed. "They think she's insane."
"Isn't she?" Addison teased.
"You two are not very nice," Meredith pouted. "I can be very helpful even if I can't cut."
"It's true sometimes," George agreed. "Callie still can't get over the way you got through to that Samantha kid the other day. That girl was an absolute nightmare."
"She was not," Meredith said. "She was just scared. Besides, she was only ten, you might not want to make it too widely known how much she scared you."
"A ten year old scared you off, O'Malley?" Addison laughed.
"You didn't meet this ten year old," George said. "I mean, I get that being in foster care sucks, but still, there was no need for her to be so nasty."
"You don't get it," Meredith said, shaking her head.
"Don't get what?" George asked.
"You say you get that being in foster care sucks, but you don't," Meredith said. "And that's not your fault, it isn't. But you don't get it. You can't get it, because you grew up with two parents who were always there. You don't know what it's like to wake up every morning not knowing if you're going to go to sleep in the same bed that night. You don't know what it's like to avoid making friends so that it won't hurt so much when the people you're living with decide you're too much trouble and send you back to the group home. You don't know what it's like to have nothing to call your own other than a few pairs of clothes in a black plastic bag. Unless you've lived it, you can't even begin to comprehend it."
"So how did you manage to get through to her?" Addison asked.
Meredith sighed. "I've lived it," she said softly.
"You what?" George asked in shock.
"I was a foster child when I was seven," Meredith said.
"I thought you were raised by your mother," Addison said in confusion.
"I was, for the most part. It was just a few months when I was younger. It's a long story," Meredith said. "One that I'd rather not talk about tonight. We're supposed to be celebrating your wedding, not dwelling on my depressing past. So, let's celebrate…is it time for that cake yet? Because I could sure use some sugar right about now."
"You know you can talk to me if you need to," Addison said compassionately.
"Me too," George added.
"I know, and I appreciate it, I really do," Meredith said. "Just not tonight, okay?"
"Alright," Addison smiled. "I'll go get Kevin, because cake sure does sound good right about now."